Shoulda, woulda, coulda.
Had the Denver Broncos managed to upset the Buffalo Bills in the Wild Card round of the NFL playoffs, coach Sean Payton seemingly thinks his squad could have also upset the Kansas City Chiefs in the Divisional round.
During his end-of-season press conference on Wednesday, Payton was asked how close the Broncos are to closing the gap between them and the AFC’s contenders.
“I’m telling you what, I didn’t see a gap last weekend until the second half,” Payton said. “Then you see a gap because you’re losing, but I felt really confident we could go in there, and play well and win. We obviously didn’t play well enough. Those lines are much finer than we think. I use that term, ‘There’s a fine line between a groove and a rut.’ It’s a player, it’s two players, it’s the line of scrimmage, it’s the kicking game. We’re not looking backwards; we’re looking ahead, and it starts with the division.
“There was a lot of confidence in this team that if we could get past that game, the next game we had to play, we felt real good about. Obviously, we’re still not there yet, and yet we’re a lot closer than we were at this time a year ago.”
Broncos Sean Payton: “… We’re looking ahead. And it starts with the division, and there’s a lot of confidence in this team. If we could get past that game, the next game we had to play, we felt real good about.”
That next game, of course, would have been at the Chiefs. pic.twitter.com/jJ6iI7JBum
— Andrew Mason (@MaseDenver) January 16, 2025
Payton has faced a lot of criticism for that remark on social media, with most of the trolling coming from Chiefs fans.
“we got run over so badly all I can do is talk trash about a hypothetical game against someone else. Maybe then no one will ask me about my ridiculously conservative play calling in the second half of the game we actually played.” https://t.co/M2zSzBIj2i
— Seth Keysor (@RealMNchiefsfan) January 16, 2025
What an embarrassing quote.
His team got STOMPED and he is talking what they think they would have done if they hadn’t gotten crushed. https://t.co/lVwTvGDgnQ
— Patrick Allen (@RPatrickAllen) January 16, 2025
— DJ Jazzy Juris Doctor 2.0 (@ChiefsfanCHI23) January 15, 2025
To be fair to Payton, the Chiefs would have been a much better matchup for the Broncos than the Bills.
Setting aside Denver’s blowout win over Kansas City’s backups in Week 18, the Chiefs won their previous game against the Broncos by blocking a last-second field goal. Before that, Denver and KC split the 2023 series 1-1 with the Broncos outscoring the Chiefs 32-28 in those two matchups in Payton’s first year on the job.
So, yes, talk about the Divisional round is a pointless hypothetical, but going forward, Denver certainly seems to be closing the gap on their division rival.
